The Author Games: Literature

Male Entries

District 4 Male: Kanai Lathan

Kanai pressed his palm to the mirror, fierce longing making his chest ache. He blinked, and then the image in the mirror twisted, people and color shifting to reveal a study. Kanai leaned forward, and there was a soft thud as a book fell out of the mirror. He bent down to pick it up, barely reading the words The Giver, when he found himself tumbling through the mirror, glass turning to nothing. A soft noise escaped his mouth as he landed on rough carpet.

Around him, the color seemed to dissipate into the air, leaving the room in shades of black and white. Kanai blinked, rubbing his eyes, but the color didn't reappear. After a moment, he shook the surprise off and got to his feet. Before he had a chance to get a real sense of the room, a low cough sounded from in front of him.

Kanai turned so quickly his neck hurt, and he rubbed it as he looked at the room's other occupant. It was an old man, whose hair might have been white or blonde, and whose face held so many emotions they seemed to weigh down his skin, forming wrinkles in smooth skin. Kanai's eyes flicked towards the book that was still in his hand. The Giver. This must be the Giver then.

"Please, lie down." The man gestured to a bed that he hadn't noticed, and Kanai allowed the other to lead him to it in a confused daze.

"What-" His question was cut off when a pair of warm, heavy hands touched his shoulder blades. He flinched, and turned around to push the man's hands off of him, but he was no longer there. Instead, he was back in what looked like his room at Four. Kanai blinked, confusion fluttering through him.

What is going on? He looked around, and realized that he was indeed back in his bedroom at Four. There was the small bed, with the blue covers that he had outgrown by the time he turned fourteen. On the walls, his many drawings hung up like posters. Scattered across the floor, articles of clothing and the occasional toy. Along the wall, his small collection of books and trinkets lay, carefully organized.

Kanai started to move towards the bookshelf, but it felt like he was walking through thick jello, while some unseen force tugged at his body, begging him to walk towards his bed instead. As he ran a hand over the spines of the books, a sense of wrongness scattered through him, like he was disturbing something sacred. Frowning, he shook off the feeling, but the frown deepened when he realized that some of his books were missing. Where would they have gone?

Eyebrows furrowing, Kanai realized there were more discrepancies that his first glance hadn't revealed. The clothes on the floor were too small for him to wear now, and the pictures on the wall were childish. They looked like crayon drawings, ones he would have drawn when he was ten. He shook his head, and the motion felt like he was slowly wringing his neck. Confusion settled deeper into him, and Kanai made his way to his bed. As he walked towards, some of the weight that slowed his movements seemed to lift.

After a moment, he realized that he must be in one of his memories, but which one? Another scan of the room revealed no clue as to the time or date, and even if there had been one, Kanai wasn't sure he would have been able to know what memory this was. I guess I'll just have to wait. At that moment, the door to his room opened, and Kadie walked in, a scowl etched into her pale features. She was holding a drum set.

Dread extended throughout his entire body, Goosebumps pimpling his flesh. He knew exactly what memory this was. A memory, that until now, he had erased from his subconscious, pretended had never existed.

No. Again, that tugging sensation pulled at him, urging him to stand up and walk over to his sister. He resisted it by folding his hands together tightly; something smooth and hard rubbed at his thumb, and he realized it was the ring he'd accepted from the hobbit. The sight sent sharp spikes of fear and anger through his body.

Mere feet in front of him, Kadie was shouting, but her words were muffled, as though he was hearing them through a wall. That's right. She was shouting about how I messed up her drums because I left them sitting in the bathtub. Kanai continued to tune out his sister's words. Maybe, if he did nothing, the memory would stop, or somehow the past would change and his sister would stop shouting.

For several agonizingly long seconds, he forced himself to stay still and silent, resisting the impulse to stand up and argue with Kadie, as he had done so many years ago. With each passing second, the urge to do so became stronger and stronger. His emotions slowly shifted, changing from the placid confusion that belonged to his seventeen year old self to the all consuming anger that his ten year old self had felt.

Kadie's voice came back, loud and grating against his ears. Shut up. Just shut up. The words rose to the tip of his tongue, but he bit down on them. He could hear her shouting, feel the floor vibrate as she stamped her feet. Kanai tried to block it out, but no matter what he tried, he couldn't. His sister remained a solid presence in front of him, red faced and angry and still shouting.
Anger ate at his resistance, small prickles that slowly turned to a single large wave, frozen mid-motion and encompassing him. Gritting his teeth, Kanai touched the ring, snugly wrapped around his finger. The cold touch seemed to ground him, creating a barrier against the anger. But it didn't stop the way his body pulled at him, like it was trying to force him to relive his memory. His finger slipped, sliding off of the ring, and the rage came back full force.

Kanai rose to his feet, his movements jerky, like he was a puppet on a string. His right hand reached out, curling around the baseball bat that he'd been given when he was seven, and still into all of those old sports. He swung the bat quickly, the movement free of any of the irritating slowness his previous movements had had, and he watched with a sick feeling in his gut as it collided with his sister's head.

She fell to the floor at the same time the bat did, and Kanai stood, frozen as a scream left his mouth. It was wrenched from his throat, burning the soft tissue as he looked down at Kadie. She wasn't moving, and her hands were still clutched loosely around that stupid drum set. He could feel his eyes burning, stinging with hot tears that refused to fall. There was an awful sick feeling in his gut that he wasn't sure came from his ten year old self or his seventeen year old self.

He had hurt her.

In some distant part of his mind, he knew that Kadie hadn't been seriously hurt, that his scream had alerted his parents and they had taken care of her, made everything better. That Kadie hadn't remembered the event and everyone else had seemingly forgotten about it. Except for him.

Abruptly, the world around him blurred and then disappeared. There was a moment where everything was out of place, and then Kanai realized that he back in the room with the Giver. His senses came back full force at the same time that he realized the room was suddenly in bright, vivid color. The Giver gently pulled him to his feet, slipping a book into his hand. Kanai shook his head, wet lashes brushing his cheeks.

"-the ring?"

Kanai blinked hard, focusing on the white haired man in front of him.

"What?" His voice was rough, like he'd screamed his throat raw.

The Giver gestured to the ring still on Kanai's finger. "Do you wish to keep it?"

Kanai looked at the smooth, golden band. It seemed to constrict around his finger, cutting off circulation. Without a second thought, he practically tore the ring off his finger and shoved it at the other man.

"Take it. I don't want to see it again."

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District 5 Male: Montgomery 'Monty' Bean

NO ENTRY RECEIVED.

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District 11 Male: Shadow Thantoes Morte

NO ENTRY RECEIVED.